Frequency allocation game in satisfaction form

In this paper, we analyse frequency allocation in wireless networks through a game in satisfaction form. Satisfaction form games are games without any optimisation aspects where a player is either satisfied or not. We show that such a formulation is especially suited for frequency allocation with quality-of-service constraints. We investigate different equilibrium concepts and show that there exists a mixed-strategy distribution where all players are satisfied with a probability not less than a certain threshold. In the case where there exists a pure-strategy action profile that can achieve satisfaction for all players, we present a learning algorithm that guarantees convergence to this action profile in finite time. In the case that no such pure-strategy action profile exists, we show that the satisfaction form formulation possesses an action profile yielding higher utility for unsatisfied players compared with a normal form game. Lastly we show extensive simulation results that highlight the differences between a frequency allocation game in satisfaction form compared with other game formulations. Copyright (C) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.